Thomas Kitts

Artist Bio

Thomas Kitts lives in Portland, Oregon. He graduated from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1984, after which he returned home to paint en plein air in the Pacific Northwest and California.

Thomas is both inspired and exhilarated by the way light plays across a landscape and he has devoted over 27 years to capturing it in oil. Thomas prefers to paint directly from life for its honesty and immediacy, incorporating alla prima techniques developed by master artists such as Sargent, Sorolla, and Zorn.

Thomas is an active member of the Laguna Plein Air Painters Association, the California Art Club, the Oil Painters of America, and the American Impressionist Society. He travels extensively and maintains an active and distinguished exhibition history – one which includes the Laguna Art Museum, the Maritime Museum of Curacao, the Academy Museum of Easton, Oil Painters of America National & Regional Exhibitions, Arts for the Parks Top 100, and three New York Art Expos. Thomas has been commissioned by such prestigious entities as the Publix Corporation, the Mariott Corporation, the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, and the Kaiser-Permanente Collection. His work is collected throughout North America.

*** Thomas Kitts can be found at both Palm Springs and Portland Galleries **​

When I paint outdoors, directly from life, I am always fascinated by how light can play across my subject, and how at times it is capable of fracturing the very thing I see. We may believe we are looking at a smashed up log jam caught by the brush, or a rushing stream digging out a resting point at a lower level, or rocks piled above and below the water line – but in truth, it is the light we see, and it, like the sun, remains in constant flow.